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An Unsealed Lawsuit Indicates Dell Hid Computer Problems

Ashlee Vance reports that court documents unsealed yesterday reveal the extent to which Dell resisted informing many governments, schools and corporations about the extent of a problem with computers it sold to them from 2003 to 2005 and that it began ranking the value of customers by importance, putting first those who might move their accounts elsewhere.

The papers were part of a lawsuit by Advanced Internet Technologies that was settled in September without the terms of the agreement being disclosed. The Times fought for access to the documents that had remained under seal.

Internal Dell presentations suggested that employees "Don't bring this to customer's attention proactively" and "emphasize uncertainty." A sample Q&A distributed to employees included obfuscations such as: "Why has Dell not taken a more proactive approach to rectifying the issue? Our approach to this issue delivers the best customer experience because it minimizes disruption."

Dell says this is all old hat and that it has improved its method of dealing with these types of problems.

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1 comment about "An Unsealed Lawsuit Indicates Dell Hid Computer Problems ".
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  1. Steve Holmlund from Cal-West, November 19, 2010 at 5:07 p.m.

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